ณาฐฟฑทดดกณขทกณงฬโ A Prairieville man who spent more than three years in parish jail awaiting his trial in a 2013 slaying walked out of the Ascension Parish Courthouse Annex on Monday afternoon with his freedom.
But David Adams Jr., 29, 41425 Hearthstone Drive, faces five years of probation, must pay a $5,000 fine and as much as $85,000 in restitution to his victim's family, and must make $250,000 bail by Thursday afternoon for the appeal of his sentence, a state district judge ruled.
An Ascension Parish jury narrowly found Adams guilty of negligent homicide after an eight-day trial last month brought by District Attorney Ricky Babin and one of his top prosecutors, Robin O'Bannon.
Adams is accused of shooting Jules Bennett Weil, his co-worker at Pelican Pawn, in a pickup truck on Cannon Road on Oct. 17, 2013. Prosecutors claimed Adams was high on synthetic marijuana at the time.
Adams took the stand at trial and claimed self-defense, saying he feared for his life whileย in the truck with Weil, a Marine with supposed martial arts training and white supremacist views.
Prosecutors had countered that claim, putting on jail phone recordings of Adams' speaking of joining the Ku Klux Klan while in jail.
The prosecutors had sought a second-degree murder conviction. If they had gotten it, Adams would have faced a mandatory life sentence.
But the jurors voted, 10-2, on Nov. 2 for negligent homicide, barely enough to uphold even the lesser verdict and avoid Adams' being released without any conviction at all.
Negligent homicide is the lowest directed verdict available in a second-degree murder case, meaning jurors in Adams' case turned down the chance to convict him of second-degree murder or the lesser charge of manslaughter.ย
"We presented a case we felt was sufficient for a second-degree murder conviction; however, the jury saw it otherwise," said Tyler Cavalier, spokesman for the District Attorney's Office.
Before handing down his sentence Monday, Judge Alvin Turner Jr. of the 23rd Judicial District noted the many letters he had received imploring him to give Adams the strongest possible sentence. Prosecutors also submitted a lengthy pre-sentencing memorandum detailing Adams' past convictions for domestic violence as well as other arrests that did not lead to convictions and other incidents that did not lead to arrests.
Turner also heard from three of Weil's family members in court Monday who notedย Weil had turned his life around. Weil had past drug and gun theft convictions.
His mother, Nancy Thibodeaux, 60, of Gonzales, spoke of the heartache over Weil's death and the loss it means for his three daughters. She noted that Adams is a father, too.
"You should know how it feels," Thibodeaux said.ย
But Turner said Adams avoided more severe jail time when jurors convicted him of negligent homicide, which offers a maximum of five years in prison, and not a more serious charge.
"The jury chose not to find him guilty of the offense," Turner said of the second-degree murder charge.
Turner gave Adams two years in state prison suspended, with five years of supervised probation. Among several probation conditions, Turner also gave Adams two more years in parish prison with credit for the time served since mid-October 2013. Adams was released on $40,000 post-conviction bail in early November.
Turner also ordered Adams to pay a $5,000 fine and, as a condition of probation, along with other court fines and fees, $10,000 to Weil's estate for loss and inconvenience and another $75,000 split evenly among Weil's three daughters.
Adams' defense attorney, Jim Boren, objected Monday to sentence, saying the prison time and restitution amount are beyond what the law allows for the conviction. He said he plans to appeal.